Ways of the Hand: A Rewritten Account

Rating:
Summary: new edition
Review: David Sudnow's phenomenological study, as Hubert Dreyfus states in his introduction to The Rewritten Account, is an altogether unique piece of work. As a (former) piano player, it inspired me to learn a piece of Bach again just so I could rediscover, for myself, some of the phenomena Sudnow describes with such depth. As a casual reader of some of the major existential and phenemonological writers, it strikes me that Sudnow, more than anyone, shows us the phenomenological perspective at work. I haven't read the earlier Harvard edition, which I've been told is very difficult, but this version certainly isn't. It's a flowing account, told beautifully, and I am sure that it will become a classic. I hope Sudnow comes through on his promise and offers us a description of learning a second language. If he makes a contribution to language studies anything like Ways of the Hand makes to the study of handicraft, that would be extraordinary.

Rating:
Summary: worth reading again
Review: Having just finished rereading David Sudnow's "Ways of the Hand" I am reminded of just how much I love this book. I think it is one of the most original books and is quite possibly the finest and most detailed record of skill acquisition ever written. I doubt that there is anyone who describes the details of things that we do the way Sudnow does. Although this is a difficult book, requiring careful examination, the rewards are well worth the effort. The uniquely descriptive language he has created is fascinating to follow as it unfolds in the course of his story. It is truly a combination of poetry and narrative. Sudnow creates an excitement in the discovery of why and how the hand can be the agent that delivers the inventions of any artist. Anyone interested in creativity and seeing how an artist comes to let his body take over and do its art should read this book. I loved it- one of the best books I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: worth reading again
Review: Having just finished rereading David Sudnow's "Ways of the Hand" I am reminded of just how much I love this book. I think it is one of the most original books and is quite possibly the finest and most detailed record of skill acquisition ever written. I doubt that there is anyone who describes the details of things that we do the way Sudnow does. Although this is a difficult book, requiring careful examination, the rewards are well worth the effort. The uniquely descriptive language he has created is fascinating to follow as it unfolds in the course of his story. It is truly a combination of poetry and narrative. Sudnow creates an excitement in the discovery of why and how the hand can be the agent that delivers the inventions of any artist. Anyone interested in creativity and seeing how an artist comes to let his body take over and do its art should read this book. I loved it- one of the best books I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Grandiloquacity
Review: I rated this a 5 because I think that the average reader may find the text impenetrable at best, and a "put-on" at worst. On the other hand, if you have met David Sudnow as I have, you may just smile and think--"That's Sudnow all right!" This book is really one inspection into human learning processes--something into which Sudnow has excellent insights. The author was a late blooming wannabe jazz pianist who thought that some mental alchemy could create jazz "artistry". Well, he comes about as close as one can using all his formidable intellectual resources. But as in every endeavor, one cannot become a "natural" through analysis or study. You either got or you don't! Nonetheless, Sudnow creates an excitement in the discovery of why and how the hand can be the agent that delivers the creativity of any artist. Sudnow's pedantry may be a sly put on. Even so, he is a true believer and even today hunts the grail.

Rating:
Summary: Grandiloquacity
Review: I rated this a 5 because I think that the average reader may find the text impenetrable at best, and a "put-on" at worst. On the other hand, if you have met David Sudnow as I have, you may just smile and think--"That's Sudnow all right!" This book is really one inspection into human learning processes--something into which Sudnow has excellent insights. The author was a late blooming wannabe jazz pianist who thought that some mental alchemy could create jazz "artistry". Well, he comes about as close as one can using all his formidable intellectual resources. But as in every endeavor, one cannot become a "natural" through analysis or study. You either got or you don't! Nonetheless, Sudnow creates an excitement in the discovery of why and how the hand can be the agent that delivers the creativity of any artist. Sudnow's pedantry may be a sly put on. Even so, he is a true believer and even today hunts the grail.

Rating:
Summary: Sociologist discovers music
Review: If you love the prose style of the professional sociologist, and the self-absorbtion of a marooned sailor, you will love this book.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating premise, horrible execution
Review: It speaks volumes that David Sudnow found it necessary to completely rewrite his treatise on his experience learning jazz improvisation at the piano. According to Sudnow's introduction, upon reading it again not even he, the author, could penetrate the cloudy, turgid prose that cluttered his first edition to get any meaning out of it. However, Mr. Sudnow has blown away the first edition's clouds only to replace them with a thick fog in a tome just as impenetrable as the original. Occasional moments of clarity notwithstanding, Sudnow's book reads like a manual of how to convolute language beyond its capacity to render meaning. That this occurs in a book about music--arguably the most emotionally expressive of the arts--makes Sudnow's literary idiosyncrasies unforgivable. Expecting enlightenment, the hapless reader instead encounters turbid gems like this: "A rapidly paced entry into a way thus known could take it with a sure availability for a numerical articulational commitment, and with no prefigured digit counting. Its paceable availability, here and now, afforded securely paced entries whose soundfully targeted particular places would now be found in course, doing improvisation." It's English--well, most of it; he invents a word here and there--but totally meaningless, and far from insightful. Examples like the one above paint every page, and only morbid curiosity can keep the pages turning. Let me save you some money: One piece of good advice is mentioned in the book twice, and it does not originate with Mr. Sudnow. Namely, sing while you improvise. It will increase your sensitivity to what you are playing, and will connect you more intimately with the piano. Sing while you play, and listen to your idols. Have faith in yourself to find your own insights, and let Mr. Sudnow wander in the fog.

Rating:
Summary: He May Play But He Cannot Write
Review: This is a fascinating book. It is fascinating because it may actually be saying something interesting. Then again, it may not.

The primary problem with this book is that Mr. Sudnow may play the piano well, but he cannot write. I have actually used parts of this book to demonstrate why writing in the passive voice often obscures one's meaning and is hell on readers. Choose almost any page from the book, and you will find most of the sentences have a passive construction. Adding to the constantly convoluted sentence structure is a goofy vocabulary that obscures rather than elucidates.

This may be the most poorly written book I have ever read. I frequently read old books about wretchedly parched things and suffer reams of rotten student and doctoral prose, but I have never encountered anything as difficult to read as this book. What is sad is that a high school level writer could immediately identify Sudnow's flaws and describe how to correct them -- they are obvious, easily fixed, and unforgivable in a published volume.

On the plus side, Sudnow appears to be saying some things that may be interesting about improvisation and coordination. And he is definitely thinking about them, which in itself is interesting.

Would that he had had even a mediocre writing class at some point is his life or an editor.